By Jeff Dolven, from A New English Grammar, a collection in progress. Dolven, who received a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship, is the author of Speculative Music, published by Sarabande in 2013.

The custom of the country is to twist
a length of plain white thread from the wooden spool
set on each table;
to make a simple net, a sketch of a harp,
strung taut between the thumb and the first two fingers;

to catch up, next, into the air a portion,
suspended…